OT thriller lands Braves in 5-AA Semifinals

(Bremen, GA) — The Braves made a big splash to open the Region 5-AA tourney in Bremen by knocking off the Lamar County Trojans 60-52 in overtime after it looked like they may have let one slip away.

Trailing by five points with just over a minute to go in the game the Trojans rallied to tie the game at 50-50 before the No. 4 seeded Braves responded in a big way — outscoring the No. 5 seed 10-2 in the extra period to advance to Thursday’s Region 5-AA Semifinal versus No. 1 Spencer at Lamar County High School.

Sophomore Ayden Cannon scored 12 in Tuesday’s win

The Trojans led 14-10 after a quarter of play Tuesday before the Braves would bounce back to close out the first half on a 9-0 run and a 25-1 lead.

The Braves would go ahead by as many as 10 midway through the third quarter, but the Trojans closed that down to five points heading to the fourth.

The highlight of the game came in that overtime period on a break-away dunk by senior Brave Tray Dunson that put the game out of reach and sent the large Brave road crowd into a frenzy.

Alijah Huzzie led the scoring in the win with 16 points including a perfect 3-for-3 from the charity stripe.

Sophomore Ayden Cannon was outstanding while scoring 13 and was 3-for-4 from the line. Dunson had 10 points and freshman Jameer Cook was solid with nine. Senior Komari Clark tallied six points.

The win secured a third straight state playoff appearance for the squad under head coach Keith Simmons — who was pleased with the effort in the overtime after losing the lead late.

“Usually you can tell by the look in their eyes at the beginning of overtime and tonight they had the look in their eyes of not  ‘we messed up and we’re in trouble’ but rather ‘we messed up but now we’re going to fix it,’ said Simmons Tuesday night.

The Braves will meet a very familiar opponent in the Greenwave — an opponent they just faced at home last Friday. That contest in Franklin was tied at the half before it got away late — similar to the scenario in the first regular season meeting between the two teams in Columbus.

“This is what we wanted and this is what we talked about just a couple of days ago. We won’t be celebrating this win very long we will be leaving the locker room tonight thinking about Spencer,” added Simmons.

The Braves will tip off versus Spencer at 8:30 PM Thursday night in Barnesville just after the Lady Braves take on the Trojans (7:00 PM) in the girls semifinals. Championship and third place games are slated for Saturday back at LCHS.